1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to landscape curbing and flatwork. More particularly, it concerns ornamental landscape curbing and flatwork which projects lighting outwardly therefrom.
2. The Background Art
It is common practice in the field of ornamental curbing to place curbstone in lawns and garden areas, particularly in housing areas where, for example, a planting bed of flowers and shrubbery might be separated from a lawn area by a border of curbing. The curbing can act as a divider to prevent lawn from spreading into the planting bed. Ornamental curbing often has a downwardly sloping frontal section which levels off in a kind of ledge surface to accommodate a lawnmower wheel thereupon, which permits the mower to cut the lawn close to the curbing edge, thus avoiding the need for edging.
It has become popular to illuminate lawn and garden areas with lighting, and some attempts have been made to combine the effect of lighting with ornamental curbing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,202 (granted Nov. 3, 1992 to Legare), U.S. Pat. No. 3,66,808 (granted May 16, 1972 to Baatz) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,920,184 (granted Jan. 5, 1960 to Kessler) each disclose illuminated curbing systems. However, these prior art systems are characterized by several disadvantages. For example, the lighting structures are unsheathed and can be more easily damaged during installation or removal. The delicate nature of the lighting requires cumbersome and expensive receiving and housing structure for the lighting in order to prevent the lighting from breaking. The lighting structure is not conveniently removable or interchangeable, and fails to provide any option in lighting spacing other than a discontinuous array of unconnected light bulbs and produces discontinuous beams of projecting light.